WD Sentinel RX4100 - Thoughts

Staff Member

Recently I picked up a 1U WD Sentinel RX4100 with 4x 4TB WD Se drives. The server itself seems to be based on an Intel Atom D525 with 4GB RAM and has a Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 sticker attached.

Despite the fact that the box is large, it only houses 4x 4TB drives and dual 1GbE ethernet. I had a look inside and there is a single 4GB SODIMM and no PCIe expansion slots. Lots of non-standard form factors involved.

Here is the question: what should I do with the box?

Option 1: Use it as a backup server in Fremont or Sunnyvale just to hold images for a PXE boot server.

Option 2: Use the drives elsewhere. Sell the chassis.

Option 3: Sell the whole thing.

On Option 1 - I do have "enough" backup capacity but I am not sure I want to use Windows Storage Server versus something like FreeNAS. I also somewhat want to have 10Gb networking everywhere now.

Thoughts appreciated. If someone wants a look inside, happy to take and post pics.

I found some pictures of the inside, and if I was looking at the correct model, there's a ton of empty space in that unit. That said, I'll toss my off-the-wall suggestion in the ring. Configure it as an iSCSI target. Then, retrofit a small switch and several NUC boards into the free space. BOOM, low(ish) power 1u compute + storage box.

Staff Member

I found some pictures of the inside, and if I was looking at the correct model, there's a ton of empty space in that unit. That said, I'll toss my off-the-wall suggestion in the ring. Configure it as an iSCSI target. Then, retrofit a small switch and several NUC boards into the free space. BOOM, low(ish) power 1u compute + storage box.

Click to expand...

There is a lot of room, and easily enough for a few NUCs. Great idea. Power is, well interesting to say the least. Not really sure if I have a use for a small cluster like this right now.

Most of these chassis that are similar in form and fit are garbage, at least in my opinion. A lot of money spent for not a lot of return. Last time I used something like this was a 1U Lacie... thing... that had 4x500GB drives in it. It was extremely slow and extremely expensive.

If it performs anything like the Sentinel DX4000 (atom based, 4 drive, small box). Trash it. I have one of these sitting around, it has USB3 but copying off of it would cause it to slow to a crawl or even crash. I pulled the drives and put it in the recycle pile.

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